1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the stabilization of the sheet resistance of Al-Cu alloy electrical conductors.
2. Brief Description of the Invention
Al-Cu alloy has been used as an electrical conductor in VLSI devices to take advantage of its low resistivity. However, Al-Cu alloy is quite active chemically and readily reacts with metals upon application of heat thereto, generally above 450.degree. C. In order to circumvent this problem, TiN has been used as a diffusion barrier between Al-Cu alloy and other metals. However, post deposition heat treatment of the Al-Cu/TiN, such as spin-on-glass (SOG) cure, sintering, aluminum reflow and the like can increase the sheet resistance of, for example, Al-0.5%Cu (600 nm thickness)/TiN (50 nm thickness) by as much as fifteen percent. This poses a serious problem for devices where SOG (organic or inorganic) cure and aluminum reflow are used for dielectric planarization and via filling during fabrication.
Most of the prior art relating to the improvement of TiN barrier properties is directed to preventing diffusion of aluminum into active silicon devices or into tungsten vias. In the prior art, the improvement of TiN barriers has mostly been achieved by optimizing the deposition parameters during TiN deposition, such as, for example, introducing oxygen flow during deposition or changing the substrate tempaerature or adding a substrate voltage bias. Some post-deposition treatments, such as, for example, thermal annealing and exposure to air have also been reported.
The oxygen dosing during TiN deposition is not desirable because oxygen may contaminate the titanium sputtering target, form titanium oxide particles and increase the sheet resistance of TiN. Changing deposition temparature may induce change in other properties of TiN, such as stress and grain size, making it difficult to optimize these parameters at the same time. Adding substrate bias induces ion bombardment of the TiN layer this possibly resulting in radiation damage to the existing devices. Post-deposition treatment involves additional processing steps and hence increases the process cycle time. Moreover thermal annealing (densification) of TiN can only be accomplished at the contact level where Al-Cu alloy is not present. It has been determined by applicants that exposure of TiN to air for 24 hours does not improve the barrier properties.